university

Linus Pauling - 1922
There is much wrong with the UK education sector. So, is the National Union of Students an indicator of further trouble in the world of education? We are told that the NUS could be bankrupt and forced to close. So the pantomime begins, there have been 'anti-austerity' demonstrations by students and altogether it looks rather ridiculous. Recently a vote at Plymouth University showed around 52% of the students opted to leave the NUS, oddly there has been no accusation, 'they did not know what they were voting for', neither a demand for a 'student People's Vote to prevent an 'injustice'.

So what of the NUS and is it just part of a higher education problem? It was formed in 1922 from several groups with similar interests. The original purpose was to lobby for students and to give them, in modern parlance, a voice. Even in those far-off days politics was not far below the surface many students eyed the rise of radical politics in other parts of the world, pronounced this was good and so the love of communism took off in the student world. From the start this created tension within the movement. Individual universities have on occasions voted to leave the NUS on this score, only to rejoin later when another group of hopefuls took over the reins of student power within the university.